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Arya's home was a small, but comfortable two bedroom detached house – I guess this was sufficient for a family of only three. And the Christmas tree in the corner of the living room only made the setting homier.
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When Amanda said "we're going out for dinner" she had meant "we're going to dinner at Arya's place." The whole thing excited me a little, I anticipated meeting Arya's small family, like a child who anticipates meeting Santa Claus.
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Arya's boyfriend, Noah, who was several years older than me, was quite the character. First off, he didn't look, nor act like the Noah I conjured up in my mind. I had imagined a clean shaven, soft featured bloke with his light slicked back hair. On the contrary, Noah had longish dark hair, a rather neat stubble, and when he turned round I saw a tattoo peaking from his shirt at the back of his neck. Despite this, he had a warm smile, which had a lot to do with he fact that the corner of his eyes crinkled whenever he displayed the gesture, and I soon found out that his personality comically mirrored Jay's.
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"So, Arya just would not shut up about you over the past few days," he said to me. "I'll have to be careful or you'll steal her away from me." A crinkle at his eyes.
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A little girl with short, dark hair and a fringe that fell into her brown eyes, came running into the living room, and stood near her mother. Arya effortlessly lifted her up.
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"I want you to meet someone, Flo," Arya said to her daughter, and turned her to face me. "This is our new friend. She is very cool."
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"Hey, Fluorie," I said, kneeling next to the little girl, "I'm Emerald."
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"Hi."
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"How old are you?" I asked, even though I knew how old she was.
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"I'm three," she responded, somewhat proudly.
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"Wow, that's a big age!"
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The girl giggled. And then her eyes landed on Amanda. "Anamda!" she squealed. Then, her eyes caught Jay's. "Jay Like The Letter! Hi!"
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Jay sighed. "Maybe introducing myself as Jay, like the letter wasn't such a great idea."
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There was a knock on the front door, which was positioned on the front corner of the living room.
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"I think that will be Everest," Amanda said. "I gave him your address, so that we can discuss the thing we going to discuss altogether. I hope you don't mind, Arya."
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"Not at all," Arya said as she put Fluorine down, and went to open the door. My heart rate sped up. I was supposed to be angry at Everest. And I was angry.
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Everest walked past me, as though I were invisible. Noah offered him a handshake, which he accepted (there's a start). I realised Noah, who was nearing seven foot, made Everest look younger than ever.
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The only person stopping you from getting the cure right now, 202, is yourself.
Anger navigated its way back to me.
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"Babe, you should probably get started on the food. I'll come and help you in a bit," Arya told Noah. "Noah makes a killer lasagne. And Green Mélange. Do you what that is?" she asked me, as Noah went into the kitchen.
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I shook my head no.
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"It's salad."
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"Gross."
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"It's nice!" she argued.
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"I'm sure it will be," I said flatly.
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"Just wait."
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Amanda spoke, "The reason why we're here, Em, is to discuss a few things and let you know what you missed out on, this morning. Firstly, Arya's current situation – she's been fired from Reynolds Corporation, and so has Noah."
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"Thank god." I heard Arya whisper. "You know, I've been thinking about leaving that god-awful job for a while now. It's just that the board doesn't take things like resignation lightly seeing as their employees have inside knowledge on what goes on beyond all the gold. Especially someone as prominent as head chemist."
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"Yes, and so we were thinking... after the whole Director thing is sorted, we'll need all the workers we can gather at the Front. And Anne's definitely not going to hold onto her old position as head chemist, which means–"
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"Yes!" I screamed. I turned to Arya. "You should so come and work for the Front once this is all over!"
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"Well, that's what we are here to discuss," Amanda said. "She is more than welcome to. And so is Noah."
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"This is great!" I rejoiced, "I can see you every week! Hell, everyday even!"
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"Woah, relax!" Arya said quickly. "I don't even know... I haven't made a decision yet. With Fluorine's school, and—"
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"I'll teach Fluorine!" I cut her off. "Please, Arya, you don't know how amazing it would be if you come to England!"
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"Em, I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself here," Amanda said. "Remember, we still need to take the company back from Director... and your testimony– only after all of that works out can we even guarantee Arya and Noah's place at the Front."
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"Yeah," said Arya, "and this whole thing, it's a huge change for Flo..." she turned to look at Fluorine, who was no longer beside her.
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But Fluorine didn't look as if she were listening. Neither did Everest.
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The sight which I was met with, upon turning my head, automatically made my jaw drop in the space of a split second of seeing it. The small girl stood at Everest's knees, tiny hands wrapped around his huge fingers laughing amused, as he made faces at her.
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I stared for several seconds and had to squint just to make sure that it was actually Everest, despite my 20/20 vision.
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"You see it too, right?" Arya asked me.
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"What the hell?" I whispered.
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"I'm jealous. He's better with her than I ever was," Arya muttered.
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Then, Fluorine mumbled something, provoking a smile from Everest. A smile!
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"She's better with him than I ever was," I said back to Arya.
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"Well," Arya said, "I guess that resolves the whole huge change thing."
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"I guess that brings us to our second problem," Amanda said. "So." She didn't say anymore, instead she was looking directly at me.
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"So..." I replied.
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"Director."
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Oh yeah, the bastard was being interrogated by federals. "Mhm?" I asked.
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"The testimony."
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"Yeah, told you I'll do it."
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"But there's a hitch," Amanda continued, slowly.
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"What kind of hitch?" I asked.
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"Well..." she hesitated, looking over at a certain someone who definitely wasn't paying attention. "Everest?"
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"Yeah?" he answered back, but didn't look up from Fluorine, who was still entertaining herself by playing with his fingers.
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"Would you like to cooperate in this conversation?" Amanda asked him.
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"I'm listening," he said, although it didn't really look like it.
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"Alright then," Amanda said, turning back to me. "I mean, there's no better way to say this..."
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"Just say it," I prompted, not severely, but not softly either.
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"The thing is, we want to you to say exactly what Director planned to do to you – that is the termination. But... well, you need to twist the why?"
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"What do you mean?"
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"You see. Emerald. The fact that Director wanted you terminated because of the error in 202, we want to keep. But in order to do that, we can't let them know about the Original Cure – about Everest."
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I looked up at the ceiling in thought, a little confused, to be completely honest. "Why? What's the point?"
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"It's just that, there are going to be questions, as to how the Original Cure came to be. We'll have to provide evidence, formulas, everything; you know how it works."
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"Yeah...?"
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"And well, we can't have the world finding out about Everest's – or yours, for that matter – telekinesis and telepathy, if you understand what I'm saying."
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"Okay. Yeah. I understand that," I said. "No one's known all these years. But why is this a hitch?"
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"Because..." Amanda's voice wavered, "we can't tell the public that your parents formulated the Original Cure. We have to tell them that they made 202."
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My eyes snapped from the ceiling towards Amanda. Now I understood. "You want to tell the world that my parents created a drug that fails to do it's job?"
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"Emerald—"
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"Even when they created the cure that actually cures cancer?"
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"Em, I know it sounds insane, but hear me out. Director wiped all records of the abnormalities in your body, that is the telepathic and telekinetic powers. He did this after discovering 202 was wrong," Amanda said, and I listened. "He didn't do the same for Everest. He kept every bit of information he could find on the origins of the Original Cure, so that he could replicate it after nearly all of it was destroyed in the Reynolds attack.
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"We need you to tell the law that there was only 202. We can't let them ever know that there was a drug before 202."
"What?" I exclaimed exasperatedly.
"Think about it," she said sternly. "If they know about the Original Cure, they'll start digging. They'll find out about the radiation. They'll find out that Everest has telekinetic and telepathic powers– powers, for crying out loud! Do you have any idea what they will do? You think the Reynolds are afraid of you? Think how much more afraid the government will feel, knowing that Everest has these abilities."
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I trained my eyes on the ground, saying nothing. She had a point, but then again her other point sucked.
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"That's why," Amanda continued, "the alternate testimony which we want you to give in court is that, Director invented 202, along with your parents, Chadwick and Holland – and although the formula was wrong, Director still planned on manufacturing and distributing it on the market. It's just as Director said the story at the launch evening. This is for all of us. We can't have everyone finding out about Everest's abilities. Please, Em."
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"No," I told her.
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Now Everest looked up.
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Amanda blinked. "No?"
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"No. I don't want to lie about my parents' legacy. They were good people. Talented, smart people. They didn't mess up and have the world pay for it. I'm not letting them take the blame for Director's errors."
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Amanda's face flushed, and when she spoke, she spoke like she did when I was younger and had stayed up past my bedtime. "Emerald," she punctuated every syllable of my name, "we're not doing this for no reason. We're doing it for Everest's safety. You know how they will get if they found out even a shred of evidence about what the radiation really did to him."
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Maybe you should stop being a brat and appreciate the fact that you're not a lab rat for Director anymore.
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Now I felt my own face flush – in anger, in hatred.
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"And what makes you think I care what happens to him?" I asked coldly.
I didn't care how it sounded, I didn't care that he was right there. I was tired of hearing his name being treated like gold dust. I was tired of him and his... his existence. It was always woohoo Everest. He is worth it, he's the better one, the more valued one – and then there's Emerald, the byproduct; we'll use her as a vault to secure Everest's full and complete value. Everest is the one who can use his telepathy to its full extent without suffering horrible migraines, Everest is the one without emotions, and therefore no has barriers to hinder his performance. Everest is the mastermind, who is going to get us out of this mess, which began with the invention of 202 – a name synonymous to 'Emerald'. With Everest came the Original Cure, and with Emerald came 202, a setback, an error, a burden on the Front's flawless legacy. Emerald is the pathetic lab rat, not really much use for anything. And like a vault, we will let her take all the blows and beats, and always protect Everest, because afterall, he is worth it, he's the better one, the more valued one. 864Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡJyQSGxClni
I got up, exasperated, suddenly out of breath, and began pacing the room.
"What?" Amanda asked.
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"You heard me," I snapped. "What makes you think that I'm going to care more about a person who's offered me nothing but cold glares and criticism throughout these past few weeks, over my parents?"
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Ironically, just now Everest gave me a cold glare, only proving my point. I determinedly avoided catching his eye.
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"You're angry," Amanda said. "About what happened before. If that's the case, then we'll when you're less angry–"
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"No. That is not 'the case'." I was angry, but it was so much more than that. "And don't bother. This will be my answer always."
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"Well, I'm gonna go and help Noah out in the kitchen," Arya casually stated, getting up, and cleverly exiting herself from a heated scene. "Wanna help mommy in the kitchen, Flo?"
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"Mmhm," the Fluorine replied. Everest slouched back into the sofa with his arms crossed, as Fluorine reluctantly pealed away from him and followed Arya.
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"Come on, Ems, at least think about it," Jay said.
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I have thought.
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I quite liked Jay, so instead of snapping at him, I didn't respond. Instead, when I was sure that he was no longer looking at me, my eyes landed Everest's slouched figure.
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You.
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Amanda followed my eyes, and read my thoughts immediately. "Everest she said. "You are being characteristically silent. Do you have any input into this?"
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I heard him sigh a little bit, still slouched back. What, this whole thing was boring for him now?
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Then he answered without really looking at anybody, "Sure, whatever."
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Jay, Amanda and I exchanged glances.
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Amanda spoke, "You do know that you play a pretty big role in this, right?"
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"Yes."
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"And you're okay with it?"
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"No," he responded, now he looked at Amanda – only Amanda. "But I can't exactly force her to say things she refuses to, can I?"
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Guess I'm not in the room then.
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"We aren't trying to force her to do anything. We are trying to put Director behind bars. He could easily get out of this whole 202 drug being wrong business with a few lies, here and there. But if we have solid evidence, I.e. Emerald's testimony, then the officials will come to know that Director intended on distributing a false drug."
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"Like I said," Everest replied, "I can't force her into giving a fake testimony."
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There was silence after that.
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***
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Arya wasn't exaggerating. Noah's lasagne was killer.
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Eventually, I tasted some of the rather complicatedly named Green Mélange; from what I could tell, it was a bowl full of lettuce, celery, beans, olives and fried onions. The rabbit food was good, but I subconsciously made an agreement with myself not to admit this to Arya.
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I tried my best to keep my eyes trained my plate, because tilting my head up more than 30 degrees would mean looking at a certain frosty-eyed person, who was sitting in the seat directly in front of me. Beside him was Fluorine, and beside Fluorine was Arya. Flo wasn't eating (she couldn't eat all on her own, anyway), rather entertained Everest throughout the unnaturally quiet meal. Amanda sat beside me, Jay on her other side, and Noah sat at one end of the dining table.
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As silence passed, all that was heard was the clatter of cutlery against ceramic. Then, Amanda spoke.
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"So, um," she awkwardly cleared her throat. Everyone turned to look at her. "The third thing is—"
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"You're still keeping count?" Jay remarked.
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"Shut up," Amanda responded. "The third thing is, Gemma's cure."
I wasn't sure that I wanted to hear anymore of this cure talk, by now I had accepted the fact that ultimately, we might not even get any cure.
But that was when Amanda said something which made me think otherwise.
"I've thought about it," she said. "The Front and Reynolds corporation both hold the upper hand over each other. The Front has a whole hardrive full of evidence of the Reynolds' attack on the Front. And Reynolds Corporation has—"
"'The Fabrication of 202'," I answered.
Amanda stopped for a moment, as if to ask how do you know?
"Yes, they have that," she said. "So long story short, both companies have something that can ruin the other several times over. Which is why, if we get our hands on the Reynolds attack hard-drive and on 'The Fabrication of 202', then we will have leverage over Reynolds Corporation. I could arrange a meeting with Brian Reynolds. We could make them hand over Gemma's cure. We could have done this ages ago if you two hadn't run away to California."
"Nevada," I muttered.
"What?"
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"We ran away to Nevada, not California. There were no more flights to California."
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"Whatever," Amanda dismissed. "Who did you speak to in the Los Angeles Reynolds Corporation? Who was in charge?"
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I focussed back onto my plate. "Some—" I stopped a profanity leaving my mouth just in time, regarding Fluorine was sitting less than a meter away. "–guy called Mark Hemisphere," I said quickly.
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"I'll see if we can get him in the meeting, as well."
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This time, Everest lifted his head up, too.
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"No!" I said. "Please don't do that." I wasn't psychic or anything, but I'd make a safe bet that Hemisphere has an undying urge to strangle me at the first chance he got, following my fake hard-drive charade.
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"What do you mean? We need all the representatives we can gather."
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"Not this guy!"
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"Why not?"
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"It's a long story," Everest interrupted, and that put an end to the discussion. He had a way of doing that.
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"Okay then," Amanda said. "Just Brian. And Emerald, could you at least try to remember what Gemma said to you?"
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"I have tried," I responded dryly. "It's no use." I briefly saw Everest's face harden, as I said that. It made me feel a strange kind of uncomfortable. Lately, he also had a way of doing that.
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"Either way, the sooner we get Gemma's cure, the better. For everyone," Amanda said.
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"GOD. Dumb name, don't you think?" I asked.
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Apocalyptic silence cascaded over the table.
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Then, I saw, Everest's lifeless eyes narrow a fraction in signature way that they always did. Both and Arya and Noah dropped their forks like they were in sync, or something. Amanda's head slightly jerked in my direction, as if she'd just heard someone utter nuclear codes in her ear. Jay continued eating his food.
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"What?" Everest asked in a soulless voice that made a graveyard seem more lively.
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"I know, it's stupid," I said, looking at everyone else, except him. "Why do you guys look like you've seen a—" I gasped upon realization – and choked on my Green Mélange.
"I'm okay, I'm–oak," not ok. I coughed on the salad for several seconds, maybe minutes. 864Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡw1UiMKOZ6p
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"Here, have some water, Ems," Jay said, passing me the water jug.
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I drank it, and my choking subsided after a while.
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"You remember what she told you!" Arya half spoke, half shouted.
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"N–" I barely made out, as a result of attempting to remove salad debris from my throat, "–o, that's not all she– said."
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"What else did she say?" Everest interrogated, speaking directly to me for the first time since the hotel room.
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"I don't know," I replied truthfully, wiping tears from my eyes.
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"How much more did she say?"
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"I don't know," I replied, rather shamefully.
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"Then, do you know that she said more?" His tone hung on its last barrier of patience.
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"Well. It'd be a bit weird for her to come up to me and say the name of my cure is GOD – that's it, bye! Don't you think?"
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The metal cutlery twisted weakly under his hand. I felt myself getting hot.
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"Do it again!" Fluorine chimed, pushing another fork in Everest's hand.
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I fed myself another forkful of my salad. "I don't know, I just have a feeling, you know, that she'd said more."
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Everest put Fluorine's fork down. "You have a feeling? That's it?"
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"Yeah," I said, shoving more Green Mélange into my mouth, but I felt less confident than I sounded, under his dreadful stare.
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"So, why the hell is she calling it GOD?" Arya asked.
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Uselessly unable to answer this, too, I shrugged. The moment I did so, was when the olives sitting on Amanda's plate became highly attractive. But I wasn't sure why. I wasn't even a particularly huge fan of olives, yet it was something about them...
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"Olives... olive—" I muttered like a madwoman.
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"What? What?" Amanda asked desperately.
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But the thought went as quick as it came. I shrugged.
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I made a mental note to beat the memory out of me. Gemma had said something to me, and it was important – at least that's why Amanda and Everest said. However, at the same time, it felt as though I was forgetting something else that had happened at the frat house.
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My eyes flickered up at Everest.
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I only realised now, with my mouth half full of Green Mélange that, subconsciously something about Everest's presence defied the laws of homeostasis in my anatomy. Okay, fine, I'll say it! Everest sitting opposite me, sitting in the same room as me, breathing the same air as me, caused... abnormal fluctuations in certain subconscious mechanisms of my body, which my medulla* was responsible for. In other (more human) words, he made my pulse increase for reasons unfathomable to me. I noticed that I breathed faster than the usual rate with him sitting two feet away from me like that. I went out of my way to avoid eye contact with him, but why?
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I was mad at him, the asshole called me a lab rat! And he'd shown nothing but meanness and emotionlessness since the night of the launch evening – although, he did offer a rather beautiful smile after our scandal at the hospital, and the way he behaved towards Fluorine was unlike anything I would have ever expected from him, it was actually rather cute and—
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Gasp and scream!
Uh-uh. Nope. This was insane. I hated the prick just less than an hour ago! And now I was– no I wasn't!
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"...So it's sorted," Amanda was saying, "Arya can come with us, and if you like it, Noah and Flo can come later."
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I tore my eyes off of him. "What? Come where?"
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"Honestly, Emerald, it's like only your body is present here," Amanda fussed.
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"Come where?" I asked more persistently.
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"To England. Where the hell is your mind—"
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I gasped loudly in happiness, joy and shock, and was a millisecond away from fist-pumping the air, screaming something along the lines of "yeah, baby!"... but stopped not wanting to embarrass myself in front of Ever– everyone.
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"Well, I'm done," Jay said, and got up with his plate. "Thank you for the dinner, you guys."
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"Don't mention it," Noah said. "Here let me get that for you." He took Jay's plate and went into the kitchen.
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Heart racing, I picked up my plate and followed Noah. Before entering the kitchen, without thinking, I glanced back at Everest. He was brushing Fluorine's fringe out of her eyes.
It was then, that I realised, it wasn't the fact that his name got treated like gold dust that angered me so much. It wasn't his coldness or emotionlessness that made me so worked up, nor was it his dreadful, or frosty, artic glares. It wasn't the fact that he existed as the Original Cure which spurred the aggravation in me.
In fact, it wasn't even him who made me angry; it was me. It was the same reason why my heart rate sped up when Arya had jokingly told me that every guy in the audience must have fallen in love with me after my speech in LA. It was the same reason as why my face rose to temperatures as hot as lit coals whenever he touched me in the most innocent ways possible during our escape from the Front. It was the same reason why I'd avoided eye contact with him all evening.
It was my stupid emotions that made me so angry. My emotions towards him. The stupid ones.
I turned round and went into the kitchen, ignoring that strange contraction in my chest.
____________________________________________________________________________
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Author's note:
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Green Mélange is made up. Please do not try to try it at home.
...and hazzah! A confession! It took 31 chapters, but we finally got there – the beginning of a normal romance novel.
Everest: But we are not normal people.
Author: Yeah okay, shut up.
•••
This chapter is something around 4000 words; I hope it makes up for my two week disappearance.
*medulla - a structure in the brain, which controls subconscious activity such as heart beat, breathing, blinking etc.
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If you enjoyed this chapter please leave a comment :) if you didn't, feel free to TP my house; it's 84 Marshall Avenue, Carnaby Steeet, London (it definitely isn't the London Reynolds Corporation address)
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